Jet Jaguar, Jet Jaguar

Involve
Released: 1999

Jet Jaguar (Michael Upton), like his Involve label mate, Aspen (Bevan Smith), is from New Zeland and makes evocative electronic music that shuffles from highs to lows, from high-tone atmospheric synth sounds to bottom-feeding crunching and thumping sounds. The music is largely low-to-mid tempo, developing at its own pace and in its own time. But there is nothing slow about the songs; JJ is just patient, willing to let the sounds and the musical progression happen at its own pace. Take the second song, "Tired Patois." It begins with a soft, lilting synth string melody, then adds in some abstract FX that swirl around from one speaker to the other; after about a minute, the song really begins, with the 909/CGD beat driving through the swirls of atmospheric and FX sounds which change and mutate from one bar to the next. The song slows down occasionally, to emphasize either certain aspects of the beat or of the FX, but then the full beat returns, and the song keeps going, changing, mutating. The bottom line for this album is simple: lots of great sounds and a lot of intelligent song-crafting make for a very enjoyable listen.

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